Peyton Manning leaves the field after the Broncos’ loss to the Patriots in Foxborough, Mass., on Sunday. (Joe Amon, Getty Images)

NFL on CBS logo

The Denver Broncos’ loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday was a bummer for local fans but a season high for the NFL’s TV ratings.

The telecast was the highest-rated NFL game this season on CBS with an average overnight household rating of 18.6 and a 32 share (or percent of those viewing television). According to CBS, that makes it the third highest-rated regular season game in 16 years on the network in the metered markets since CBS got the NFL back in 1998.

Emmanuel Sanders (10) of the Denver Broncos makes his third touchdown grab of the game in the third quarter of a game against the San Diego Chargers at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver on Oct. 23, 2014. (AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)

Thursday night’s broadcast of Denver’s 35-21 victory over San Diego more than tripled ratings from a year ago, if you count CBS and NFL Network combined ratings.

The average overnight household rating/share in the 56 metered markets of 13.6 rating, 23 share (percent of the viewing audience).

No surprise, the viewership peaked in the final half-hour at a 14.1 rating, 24 share.

This week’s premieres include possibly the worst drama of the season: “Stalker,” Wednesday at 9 p.m. on CBS4.

It’s not that CBS doesn’t know how to deliver mass-appeal procedurals; that’s the network’s specialty. But the idea of a series built on titillating audiences with violence against women, a voyeuristic show focused on the creepy stalking of vulnerable people (mostly women), is distasteful apart from any questions of casting or character development.

From the opening moments, when a woman is chased, then set ablaze and burned to death in her car, “Stalker” is less a drama than an unnerving and gimmicky set of violent visuals.

Three new dramas premiere on the broadcast networks tonight: “Forever” on ABC stars the charmer Ioan Gruffud as an immortal crime-solver who turns up naked in various bodies of water every time he “dies”; “Gotham,” the Batman origin story on Fox with an all-star cast playing the beloved comic book characters and hinting at their futures, and “Scorpion,” a cross between “Misfits of Science” and a typical CBS procedural, based on a true story about a genius hacker.

Judging by the pilots, one’s a hit, one’s a miss and one could convince fans of “The Big Bang Theory” to stick around after the comedy for an action-adventure treatment of science geeks.

“Forever,” at 9 p.m. Monday on Channel 7, is a slog, “Gotham,” at 7 p.m. on Channel 31, is a clever dive into established mythology that will delight DC Comics fans, and “Scorpion,” at 8 p.m. Monday, is a middling hour with a heart that could build over time.

Most impressive of the bunch, “Gotham” from Bruno Heller lets Jada Pinkett Smith steal scenes as villainess Fish Mooney, puts Ben McKenzie in the role of Det. James Gordon, learning the ropes, has Donal Logue tough-talking as world-weary Det. Harvey Bullock, and showcases Robin Taylor doing a wonderful turn as Oswald Cobblepot, who will become The Penguin. It’s a clever reimagining of the tale, respectfully extending the brand. The tone really is all over the place. It’s dark, literally as well as figuratively. Guest star Richard Kind hams it up as the Mayor, steampunk elements make the time period blurry, the violence ranges from awful to surreal and the tragic life of young Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) is treated sweetly.

CBS has now provided critics with three episodes of the new drama “Madam Secretary,” starring Téa Leoni as initially reluctant Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord. The program, an obvious nod to a certain presumptive front-running female Democratic candidate for president who was formerly a globe-trotting secretary of state, arrives Sept. 21 (7 p.m. on CBS4). How timely and ripped from the headlines will it be? The second episode is titled “Another Benghazi.” References to a company of “private security contractors” are rife, as are digs about the public picking on the Secretary of State’s hairstyles.

Creator-producers Barbara Hall and Lori McCreary deny the Hillary Clinton inspiration: “We believe this show and its characters have been written to tell the story of an apolitical woman at the pinnacle of the diplomatic world. She thinks outside of the box and party lines…”

They demur but the parallels will be unmistakable to viewers. And why not? With a prominent female politician on the national stage, with strong women ascendant on TV, it’s ripe dramatic territory. The only reason to deny the inspiration is for ratings’ sake. By trying to make her politically neutral, they threaten to defang the drama.

In TV terms, “Madam Secretary” is infinitely more credible than “State of Affairs,” NBC’s thriller starring Katherine Heigl due in November. Leoni’s character works the back channels, dramatizes the protocols, inter-office politics and diplomatic challenges while keeping things running at home (and keeping her two kids out of the public eye). By contrast, Heigl’s character seems to single-handedly run the country, the intelligence community, as well as D.C. nightlife.

Neither show made my top-10 for the new season. But the talent bench on “Madam Secretary” is deep — Bebe Neuwirth is underused as just one of several very serious State Department advisors, Zeljko Ivanek is the heavy in the office, Keith Carradine plays the president, Tim Daly plays the Secretary of State’s husband — and if the show can steer away from the sentimental it may be worth following.

For a perverse sort of fun, tune in tonight for NBC’s “The Mysteries of Laura,” a peculiar misfire starring Debra Messing. If you follow television, care about the new season and believe the medium says a great deal about how we think of ourselves as a society, you need to know about the stinkers of Fall 2014. This one’s such a marvel of miscalculation, you can’t take your eyes off it.

The dramedy (at 9 p.m. on Channel 9) concerns a tough lady cop who is also a mom with two undomesticated kids (they pee on each other in the pilot). Not funny enough to be a comedy, not serious enough to pass as a cop show, it’s not credible in any direction. The Spanish original may have been more over-the-top hiliarious, I don’t know. The adaptation fails spectacularly.

Relying on Messing’s comedic abilities — there she is in spanks for no reason, there she is firing a gun to prove something (to us/the bad guy? unclear) — the hour starts from the premise that women have to be two different people in their work/home lives, almost a “superhero,” according to executive producer Aaron Kaplan. In 2014, it seems a tad late for this revelation.

With “Mysteries of Laura,” Messing threatens to erase the public’s fond memories of her in “Will & Grace.” She’s strong enough to carry a comedy, but this isn’t it. The mystery of “Laura” is how it got on the air in this form.

More stinkers await analysis as the season rolls out, notably “Stalker,” premiering on CBS on Oct. 1, an hour of titillation built on violence against women, and “Mulaney,” a crazy-undisciplined hodgepodge of a “Seinfeld” ripoff, coming to Fox on Oct. 5. Sometimes the medium is most fun and instructive when efforts fall flat.

Rihanna, a prominent former victim of domestic violence, will not be part of the opening segment on Thursday Night Football this week, a CBS Sports spokeswoman confirmed.

“We pulled multiple production elements” to make room for an update on the Ray Rice scandal.

On Sept. 2, CBS announced that “CBS Sports and NFL Network will open each game of Thursday Night Football in 2014 with Jay-Z’s Grammy Award-winning song “Run This Town,” featuring megastar Rihanna.” In light of Rice’s firing Monday by the Baltimore Ravens, (not to mention the awful juxtaposition that would have made considering Rihanna’s past), and to make room for an update on the situation, CBS decided to shelve that opening.

“Breaking Bad” had a well deserved victory lap at the 2014 Emmy Awards, and “Modern Family” emerged alongside “Frasier” as the TV comedy with the most best-series wins. But take a look at tonight’s awards by network and by show. Clearly, Netflix was disappointed, while it was a very good night for CBS.

CBS4 this year will have more football programming than any other local station, including 10 regular season Broncos games.

The station will have seven Thursday night NFL games including the Broncos-Chargers on October 23, now that the CBS-NFL deal is in place. Also expect five locally produced shows each week. The CBS Thursday Night Football deal is expected to be a ratings driver for the network.

Sports reporter-anchor Gary Miller, a 22-year veteran of the beat, will return to CBS4 to cover Broncos training camp and the 2014-2015 regular season. Miller left CBS4 last July to do radio play-by-play for CSU.

“Pilot” — STALKER stars Maggie Q (right) as Lt. Beth Davis and Golden Globe Award winner Dylan McDermott (left) as Det. Jack Larsen in a psychological thriller about detectives who investigate stalking incidents — including voyeurism, cyber harassment and romantic fixation — for the Threat Assessment Unit of the LAPD. STALKER will air Wednesdays at 10:00 PM on the CBS Television Network. This photo is provided for use in conjunction with the TCA SUMMER PRESS TOUR 2014. Photo: Robert Voets/CBS 2014 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Maggie Q (“Nikita”) and Dylan McDermott (“The Practice,” “Hostages”) co-star in “Stalker” on CBS, a creepy, scary crime show. Kevin Williamson (“The Vampire Diaries,” the “Scream” movies, “Dawson’s Creek”), in business with CBS for the first time as creator/executive producer, said “Stalker” is a procedural as opposed to the weekly horror movie he intended “The Following” to be.

“I don’t want to become a series that’s about violence against women,” Williamson said. “There are so many versions of stalking, it’s a very complicated, insidious type of crime.”

And, yes, it’s creepy. It won’t be everyone’s kind of show. The opening sequence in particular is quite eerie. Why would we want to get in the head of a creepy stalker? “Turn the channel,” Williamson said in response.

“I wrote this script listening to RadioHead’s “Creep.” (You know, “I wish I was special.”) He knows the territory: he was stalked by “an overzealous fan” who broke into his house.

“We all can be stalkers,” Williamson said. “We’re going to see the anatomy of the stalker, how the obsession takes root.” The psychological thriller will often include instances of stalking involving social media, reflecting reality.

Comments Off on “Stalker” on CBS, a creepy Kevin Williamson procedural

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.